Applicants told in error they’d been admitted to MIT

Massachusetts – Some Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) applicants were distributed an email that erroneously told them that they were admitted to the university. As reported by Bloomberg, it was unknown how many students had received the email containing a bottom footer that stated “You are on this list because you are admitted to MIT.”

The mistake reportedly resulted from MIT combining two separate lists about financial aid. The lists were merged in a program called MailChimp, which also imported a footer from a communication sent to students who were admitted early.

According to the admission department’s blog, the footer was supposed to read, “You are receiving this e-mail because you applied to MIT and we sometimes have to tell you things about stuff.”

Chris Peterson, an admissions officer at the school, is quoted as stating of the mix up, “It crushes — crushes — me to think that I might have unintentionally inflicted something similar on some of you,” he wrote. “I’ve been on that side and I know how it feels. And if you’ve now felt it too, in part because of me, I’m so, so sorry.”